One employee described a” Hunger Games-style position” in which employees encountered crowded parking lots, overcrowded offices with no basic materials, and lengthy protection lines on Monday at the Food and Drug Administration’s Maryland office.
According to President Donald Trump’s Inauguration Day administrative order, the FDA mandated that employees return to work on Monday, a condition that was set forth in the president’s professional buy. It stated that “heads of all departments and agencies in the executive branch of government shall, as soon as possible, take all necessary steps to cancel remote work arrangements and require employees to return to work in-person at their respective work stations on a full-time foundation, provided that the department and agency heads may make exemptions as they deem
Several employees shared photos of the extensive parking lots and perimeter security that stretched around the campus yet before 7 a.m.
One FDA staff reported to the Washington Examiner,” From entering the school to getting to my office was about 50 moments. Two big surface lots were whole by 8 a.m., and people had to park in aisles and anywhere else possible.
On Monday, thousands of workers returned to the FDA’s Maryland office to what one employee described as a “hunger games kind situation.” Before 7AM now, the park bit looked like this. Some people describe a safety collection waiting more than an hour: image. twitter.com/wlJGxgLscG— Samantha-Jo Roth ( @SamanthaJoRoth ) March 17, 2025
Most FDA workers could work remotely at home at least twice a month even before the COVID-19 epidemic. After the crisis, the FDA staff said she would usually work a hybrid schedule, working from home one to two days a year.
” We have NEVER waited this long.” The individual remarked,” We have never had ranges outside the building.” They want this, they say. They want us to feel uneasy and upset, so we leave.”
Another individual described arriving at the main doorway around 8:30 a.m. only to discover that the lot was overflowing. He described driving around for more than 20 minutes in the hopes of finding a location before finally parking on the side of the road.
How effective is it that I spent hours of my time looking for park and standing in protection lines today? the subject of the question. ” There was total panic,” he said. I have no idea how I would do this every day.
Security was wholly ready for the number of people entering the building, he continued.
Years of experience have been had at the Maryland school White Oak school, which is located 40 hours north of Washington, D.C. According to a 2018 report on the combination of the headquarters, the organization needed “7, 436 more parking spaces,” which is one parking space for every 1.8 employees.  ,
Federal WORKERS WHO RETURN TO WORK MAY FIND NO OFFICE SPACE EXISTS.
The lack of direct access to high-capacity transportation, quite as Metrorail, is a challenge for FDA, according to the document. Beyond telecommuting, vehicles, and carpool/vanpools, FDA must use a variety of tactics.
The government accountability office discovered that the college was not up to par and that more information was required before the company’s plans to address cramped workplaces and driving spaces could be implemented.
The FDA’s primary school tested positive for Legionella, a bacteria that causes Legionnaires ‘ disease, last fall in addition to the potential problems. Some employees are uneasy about the situation, but a spokesperson for the company earlier this month assured them that the ocean was now safe to drink.
The individual, who is a new family and is still nursing, claimed that” that message never talked about what precisely they did to fix the problem.” ” I brought my enormous Stanley cup of water because I didn’t hazard passing it on to my baby. I don’t believe it.”
